I normally do not post any political commentary here, but I'm going to make an exception. I was looking at various new anti-net neutrality legislations in Germany, said to be made "to help fight child pornography".
What the hell. You'd almost think they were lobbied into this by some 'child porn producers association', whom complained that online CP is hurting their profits. "Our determination to fight child pornography" my ass. What happened to determination to fight child abuse? It happens in real life, you need rather difficult investigation to identify the pedophile bastards, and you need to send in some police for arrest, as opposed to asking ISP to shut down something and afterwards pretending it didn't happen.
Censoring the Internet is just silly. It is like combating evidence for the crime(photos) rather than crime itself(child abuse). It is a distraction from real issue. It does not free any children from any basements.
Link to another dude's rant on same topic
Force polygons of equilibrium structures
9 years ago
I think you're right. Goverments use the hysteria around child abuse/porn like they do with terrorism: it's a good excuse for censorship, reduced human rights etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you heard about the paediatrician in Wales whose house was attacked because the mob couldn't tell the difference between a paediatrician and a paedophile? (It was back in 2000. The story is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/901723.stm
This kind of hysteria helps no one.
That's the same reasoning they're using to justify the mandatory internet filter here in Australia.
ReplyDeleteIt's either a misguided attempt to do the right thing (ha!) or a vehicle for introducing a reduction of online freedom.
Either way, it's the wrong thing to do. Keep the net free.
The way it looks right now, Germany's minister for family affairs (Ursula von der Leyen) has a hard time spinning this one.
ReplyDeleteShe has very obviously been determined to use the topic to push the current election campaign, but did not expect that amount of public dismissal of the idea.
Discussions have been running high here in the last weeks. The technical concept (DNS manipulations at the ISP level) and the privacy & censorship implications have been torn to shreds on the Internet and in the classical media.
It's not yet over, but the government does not seem to have much firm ground to stand on with this.
This is just wrong. It's fascist. Also, it's like a doctor treating the symptom rather then treating the cause of the illness causing the symptom.
ReplyDelete